Tweet
I have several region-free PAL DVD's (region-free meaning all regions are enabled on the disc) that won't load into certain DVD players, and I'd like to figure out why these machines don't like the disc and if there is anything I can do about it to make them work...
I have 4 DVD players and a PC with DVD-ROM which are all NTSC players set to region 1 if that matters. The disc plays on my oldest DVD player (a Memorex player from 2002) and on the PC with DVD-ROM. However, it will not load into my newer Memorex player (lets say 2005 was the year I got this one), nor my Sony DVD player/recorder, nor my Blu-Ray player. I know all of these machines can play PAL discs because I have other region-free PAL DVD's that do play on them. It's something specific about these discs only. What the hell?
It's just so odd that only the *oldest* player can play the discs, something that can't be easily explained away by newer "compression" or "copy-protection" techniques (BTW, the discs might not be copy-protected at all, I'm not sure how to tell). I've been able to make an image of the disc and burn a copy of it, to check if read errors on the newer machines are the reason, but alas the newly burned and verified copy also exhibits the exact same behavior on the machines (plays on the oldest and the PC, but not on the others). Again, what the hell?
I'm thinking there must be something funky in the IFO files on these discs that's making the *newer* machines (if you call 2005 that much newer than 2002) not accept the disc. While I'm glad I have one machine that can play it, it isn't always convenient. Any ideas what could be wrong with these discs?
I have 4 DVD players and a PC with DVD-ROM which are all NTSC players set to region 1 if that matters. The disc plays on my oldest DVD player (a Memorex player from 2002) and on the PC with DVD-ROM. However, it will not load into my newer Memorex player (lets say 2005 was the year I got this one), nor my Sony DVD player/recorder, nor my Blu-Ray player. I know all of these machines can play PAL discs because I have other region-free PAL DVD's that do play on them. It's something specific about these discs only. What the hell?
It's just so odd that only the *oldest* player can play the discs, something that can't be easily explained away by newer "compression" or "copy-protection" techniques (BTW, the discs might not be copy-protected at all, I'm not sure how to tell). I've been able to make an image of the disc and burn a copy of it, to check if read errors on the newer machines are the reason, but alas the newly burned and verified copy also exhibits the exact same behavior on the machines (plays on the oldest and the PC, but not on the others). Again, what the hell?
I'm thinking there must be something funky in the IFO files on these discs that's making the *newer* machines (if you call 2005 that much newer than 2002) not accept the disc. While I'm glad I have one machine that can play it, it isn't always convenient. Any ideas what could be wrong with these discs?
Comment